The Irish Natura and Hill Farmers’ Association (INHFA) has said it has secured changes to two measures under the National Sheep Welfare Scheme (NSWS).
These changes relate to the plunge dipping measure and clostridial vaccine measure, the farm organisation said.
When the scheme was announced, the farm organisation said that the date for completion of the dipping measures would prove difficult for farmers.
INHFA vice-president Michael McDonnell said that the October 15 deadline is “problematic for many hill flocks where sheep would still be on the hills and in many cases would not be down until November”.
That same date – by which all scheme actions have to be completed – would also be difficult to meet for farmers choosing to vaccinate ewes under the clostridial vaccination measure, according to McDonnell.
The INHFA said that, after engagement with the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, farmers will be allowed avail of a later completion date for both those actions of November 25, 2024, but they must notify the department before September 15 that they wish to use the later date.
However, where farmers do avail of the later completion date, their payment under the scheme will be delayed until the end of December or possibly early January 2025.
There are four actions in the National Sheep Welfare Scheme and applicants must complete, in full, two actions, one from each category, as follows:
- Category A:
- Shearing, or;
- Body Condition Scoring Ewes and appropriate follow-on management;
- Category B:
- Clostridial vaccination of ewes, or;
- Plunge Dipping to control external parasites.
The scheme has a budget of €15 million.
McDonnell called on the department to utilise that funding in full.
“[We] are pushing the department for guarantees that the full €15 million allocated in the budget will be spent on the scheme,” he said.
“In the unlikely event that farmer uptake doesn’t match the budget then unspent funds must be paid out to existing participants as a top-up on each ewe,” McDonnel added.